Our Community

a day in the life

Our campus was designed to provide a beautiful and functional home and school environment for our students. Our facilities grant us the ability to carry out the typical daily events of a traditional boarding school while our program ensures these activities remain productive and useful.

Students reside in two dormitories connected by a common living room. Spacious dorm rooms provide ample living space for four students to live and work together. Roommates are assigned to create a well-balanced group with a supportive combination of strengths and experience. Students on higher phases offer leadership and support to new students. Daily life is a combination of rigorous academics, personal growth through therapy and physical and artistic activities that encourage expression.

Each day starts at SRA with time for physical activity. We understand the important connection between the mind and body and encourage all girls to participate in exercise activities. After physical conditioning students have time for breakfast and personal hygiene prior to starting their school day. Mornings and early afternoons are spent in the classroom with a keen focus on college prep. After school students have a variety of activities that they participate in each day including therapy, extracurricular activities and group.

Each evening students visit the dining room for our evening meal. Like all meals at Spring Ridge we eat as a family encouraging girls to enjoy the company of their peers and build lasting relationships. After dinner students attend a study hall where they are given time to complete assignments and focus on any academic needs that they have. Prior to bedtime all students are given a quiet time of reflection. This time is intended to allow students to process what they have learned that day and have a mindful focus on those areas that they still need to address.

sample schedule

phases of her journey

Students move through a four stage process during their enrollment in Spring Ridge Academy. Each stage builds on skills working through transition home. The typical length of stay at Spring Ridge Academy is 14 to 18 months. Length in the total program and time on each stage is based upon students attainment and resolution of treatment goals evidenced by practice of new patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.

Orientation
Orientation gives students time to acclimate to Spring Ridge Academy. Most students enter Spring Ridge Academy after completing a short-term intervention, like a clinically-based wilderness program. The insight and therapeutic work completed prior to Spring Ridge will be deepened and applied to an environment with more demands. Students acquire a thorough understanding of the history, philosophy and expectations of the program while establishing healthy relationships with peers and adults.

Consistency
Students delve deeper into therapeutic work and intrinsic change begins to happen. Students will be able to regulate their emotions and develop an internal locus of control. A key to the Consistency Milestone is for young women to begin to internalize the process, finding value in feeling, thinking and behaving differently as they are seeing new results in their lives as a result of internal change.

Integration
Integration is a time for students and families to integrate new skills into the home environment. On Orientation and Consistency, students and their families have re-established family structure and connection. Now is the time to practice these skills at home to become a productive part of the family. Students are expected to exhibit self-regulation and resiliency and to develop a sense of identity and self-trust at Spring Ridge and in the home environment. Integration provides the opportunity for students to see their family as their greatest resource.

Transition
During the Transition phase, students begin to establish a routine for life after Spring Ridge Academy. The routine will acquaint them with skills needed for academic, social, emotional, therapeutic and family life. Students will increase their level of self-reliance and resiliency while expanding their comfort zone by taking age-appropriate risks while maintaining a sense of self and holding boundaries. By the end of the Transition phase, students and their families will be well practiced and prepared for life following Spring Ridge Academy.